TrevorR

Oooh, I’d not spotted that.

Well this is nice, I get to report a new bass acquisition without fear of Tier 1 infraction. This Sandberg California TT4 SuperLight arrived today and is LOVELY!!! Great active Jazz sound and only weights 2.8kg / 6.2lbs too. I ordered it back at the end of August so I understand that means it’s not in scope for this year’s challenge. Yay!!!

Well, it’s here… came home this lunch time and discovered that they’d delivered it early - fortunately they’d stashed it behind our bins - not taken it back to the depot. Phew. I have to say that I love it. It looks and sounds great and, of course, the feel of the neck is wonderful. It’s the all-paulownia version but none the worse for that. The sound is in just the Jazz territory that I like with bounce and spring in all the right frequency ranges. Lovely. I’ll be using it at church tomorrow evening and then again at the Weekly Monday Jam on Monday so I will report back on the sound… but I do not expect to be disappointed. Oh yeah… and the number you all want to know… 2.8kg / 6.2lbs which is daft but it still feels great on a suede backed leather strap. No neck dive discernible at all. Love it so far!

Well, that shows how often I’ve walked past in the last decade. To be fair, I’d have been more likely to pop into Hobgoblin. Sad that they couldn’t stay afloat online either.

Ivor Mairants has never been a bass focused shop but is one of the old grandees of the Soho music shop scene. Just had an email from their mailing list saying that they are closing down after trading for over 60 years. Not part of Denmark Street but tucked up a side street off Oxford Street nearby, it was one I always popped into for a look any time I was in the area and having an idle browse. Retail is a tough old biz these days and so I’m not surprised that a small, independent shop like that can’t keep going. That’s 21st C commerce. Still a shame when I look back at what the area was like back in the 80s when I first started visiting.

🤣🤣🤣

Speaking of Superlight TTs… this popped into the inbox today… Super chuffed as it was listed originally for delivery by the end of April, so gaining a few months on it is great news. As a new build, ordered last September, I’m a little intrigued to see whether it will have the solid paulownia body or the newer maple core with paulownia wings design that they announced over the summer. Not worried either way but it adds an additional little element of surprise into the anticipation. Can’t wait to give it a run out a church on Sunday evening and at the weekly jam on Monday. Watch this space…

Enjoy it!!! I so very nearly pulled the trigger on that one - or it’s close clone - last year but decided not to as it duplicates the pickups on the VM I got last year. I was really looking for a TT SL for that Jazz look and feel. That said, the VM is a great pickup combination - both sound great individually and the blend sounds are lovely too. Do give us your in depth review when you’ve had a chance to properly put it through its paces…

That’s fabulous news, Rich. You’re going to love playing it!! I still love my Pro 2E a quarter of a century after getting my hands on it. Going to sound great at the ska gig. Paul is such a star, he did a similar job on mine back around 2010ish, including changing the pops for ones with integrated shafts and it really gave it a new lease of life. Enjoy!!

Ah, go on push the boat out… something subtle and understated like a Bootsy Star Bass for the rocky numbers and an Ibanez Iceman for the ballads. G’wan, you know you want to! 🤣🤣🤣🤩

Brilliant!! Hope that it all goes well. The vids of the previous Sundays for Sammy have been amazing. Such a great thing to to and such great cause. All the best for the night. Any special guests you’re in a position to divulge yet or is that all under wraps until the event?

They’ve just had to buy a whole new desk because the old one started doing phantom gain and level changes at random on several channels. So getting some ADDITIONAL cash out of the finance committee right now might er… erm… hopeful! In fact, I’ll bet that the additional functionality of a new desk vs one that’s 10-15 years old may be partly behind the experiment!

I think that I’ve committed a Tier 2 infringement, I’m afraid, but I do have extenuating circumstances. The sound guys at church want us to try using in-ears (which I already have) but I’ll need a small IEM amp. So I got a little Behringer in-line belt pack for 23 quid off Amazon. I can only apologise for being naughty, but a big boy made me do it and ran away (to behind the sound desk). 😫

Fun time at the Surrey Country Roots Jam last night. Bass players were thin on the ground with a couple of last minute drop outs, so I ended up playing a few tomes. I was down to play four tunes - one of which I’d suggested and three more I was asked to play or had previously volunteered for. Then I got roped in to play with a guy I kinda know from another jam - he’s “a character”and so I played an impromptu, in the wrong key version of Springsteen’s The River and then Country Roads (both hanging on by the seat of my pants). Best thing was, when I first sat down I saw another bass player off to my left who seemed vaguely familiar. However, with that whole “seeing someone you know but in the wrong context” thing, I just couldn’t place him… a which point, he waved and said “Hi”. Of course, it was @Happy Jack who had come along to check the jam out and see what the standard was and the split between proper old school country, country-pop and the seriously betasseled brigade. So good to see him and sit and chat. He ended getting up for one Hank Williams number playing his lovely old Ovation bass.

Fun slightly retro worship set last night. The songs were a variety of blasts from the past, all of which I was familiar with. Was surprised how many of the team hadn’t heard the Hillsong ones which I would have thought of as “worship standards”! At Start: This I Believe (the Creed) (F) So Will I (D) Response song: Speak oh Lord (B) Communion: God I Look to You (D) This Kingdom - Hillsong (C) At End: Mighty to Save (G) Never Gonna Stop Singing (F) However, our WL/pianist who chose them was ill over the weekend so we had to draft in one of our other keys players and one of the other singers had to lead the songs - many of which she hadn’t sung before. That said, it all worked out well and sounded good (apart from me having a bit of a brain fade on the first tune and the piano player not quite playing all the tunes as written). Proud of the team as they adapted well. We have a cracking drummer so Never Gonna Stop was a lot of fun to play!!!

I’d go for Incognito’s Tribes, Vibes and Scribes. Step forward Mr Randy Hope-Taylor.

I like my blue UE11s… it’s a case of do you want to go discreet —> clear or choose a colour you like. I’m blue for my in-ears and clear for my general ear plugs (as they might get used in civilian life as well as playing).

68 Guns - The Alarm

Lovely Sunday Evening service this week. It was Epiphany so officially the last on e of the Christmas season. That meant we were huddled together in one corner as the altar area and stage was still set up for Christmas nativities and the like. Not ideal for foldback sound purposes or band sightlines but it worked out OK in th end. It was a nice meditative service with a lovely song list including some old favourites, a blast from the past and a couple of songs I’d never heard before. Unfortunately with Christmas and New Year we didn’t have the final list and keys until Thursday but “needs must” and all that. Thankfully, most of the songs were pretty straightforward. The setlist was: Great In Power Noel Here I Am To Worship Manger Throne This I Believe, and The Blessing. I’d not come across “Manger Throne” before but what a powerful song - Phil Wickham in uncharacteristically mellow and philosophical mood. I guess I always think of him as a bit of a praise rocker, or maybe that’s just the tunes of his that I’ve played. The band was small but perfectly formed… keys, (shy) acoustic guitarist (who doesn’t really seem to want to be heard), saxophone, bass and drums (not played with that drummer before), and two female vocalists. It’s pretty much one of the two regular groups I play with at church so it was all nice and familiar. It was a nice opportunity to give the Sandberg a rest for a week and remind my (more festively coloured) Wal Pro bass that Daddy still loves it. 🤣 it does have a lovely round and plummy tone which you ca roughen up at the flick of a switch if needed - but that wasn’t really the tone of this week’s service. Listened through on the stream and it sounded OK. Next time up is end of the month. https://www.youtube.com/live/1vZbSY2Z_2I?si=LrTLSrBfpkxDrOyz

Ah, but the CC payment hasn’t gone out though (to my surprise and no deposit either) so I’ll deffo be paying for it this year!! 🤣 Not sure what sort of abstinence limbo that leaves me in… 🤨🤔🤣 …but (Sandberg excepted) I’m in!

Well, since I’ve got a Sandberg on order, expected around Easter time, I guess that’s me out before it started!

Not bass related but Santa did bring me a turntable and a nice LP to play on it. Will be lovely to get my old vinyl out again and spin it through my stereo system! 🎅🏼❤️🤘

Me too! Any day of the week!

We did a lot of pub gigs too - a lot. And to be honest, I’d be more scared by the behaviour of heavily drunk mates of the groom or bridesmaids and bevvied up Sharon from Accountings than the average pub punter!!!

I always find the “what bass is too expensive to play down the Dog & Duck?” question very hard to answer given that this was my regular wedding, club and pub gig set up in my function/party band days. They were the basses I most loved to play, so those were the ones I played - wherever. OK, I didn’t pay today’s ridiculous prices when I bought them in 1993 and 2000 respectively but their second hand prices in the mid 2000s was still substantial. The Sandberg I bought this year would probably be considered expensive by many but, again, I love playing it so I do! Here it is funking it out at our local jam night.